Sunday, November 30, 2008

Huahine & Raiatea (pt 1.) October 16 2005

Our sail to Huahine overnight was mostly non-eventful. However, in themiddle of the night the captain was roused as the main had tumbled down. Itturned out the snap shackle on the halyard had failed. Of course, beingalways prepared, we had a spare fitting.We arrived about 7am and proceeded to try to anchor. We're starting tothink the trusty delta anchor has taken a dislike to us as it took about 6tries to get it to set just off the beach of the now closed Bali Haihotel--some great tanners on the beach as Joe will attest!!. Huahine wasgreat and we spent about 2 weeks there and will go back later this winter.The townspeople are very friendly, and we actually found a bar with happyhour half price drinks--about $3.50. Needless to say, it was a popularplace and also had great food at reasonable prices. The main town of Farewas rather quaint, but had good and reasonable supplies. Actually thegrocery store had a better selection than most of the large stores inPapeete, and the prices were about the same. I splurged and bought abottle of Jack--on sale for $40!!!! The bad news was it seemed wespent about half our time trying to jury rig a repair to our 10 month olddinghy. One of the below the waterline seams delaminated--manufacturingdefect--and getting hypalon cement, which is necessary, is not possiblehere. We tried everything from trusty 3M 5200 to contact cement to neopreneglue. Nothing held for more than a day. And what a pain, cleaning all theold glue off to make another stab at it; I think it was seven attempts, inall (what dad fails to mention is that it is I, not him, doing the grunt work). We figured we could get it done inRaiatea, but even with their extensive charter operations and boat yards,they can't do it here. So--the dinghy was put on a ferry yesterday (9/5) toTahiti for a week. We've rented a Mooring' s dinghy as a spare, but it'ssmall and slow and I'm worried about a mutiny if Rose's bum gets too wet.The good news is we finally got our visa extension and can stay in Fr. Poly.until ourwinter trip. We had to jump through some administrative hoops and have theboat yard write letter about our engines, but we're finally legal!!Waiting for the fax today. Technically, our visa expired 2 days ago, butthey let usknow by phone we'd been approved.The last excitement on Huahine was our ongoing medical saga with Joey's footand, then, my eye. Joey had to fly back to Tahiti for another treatmentfreezing a giant wart off his foot. The night before his flight, all of asudden, I get blood inside my eye, like looking through red mosquitonetting. Oneof my innumerable medical references suggested that could be a detachedretina, so we didn't screw around, and I joined him on the flight.Amusingly, we had a bare chested, bare footed sarong clad taxi driver to theairport who only charged us half price!! After a 4 hour wait at the clinic,I finally got to see the doc who gave me a thorough exam. Seems that whileit could have been some detachment, I lucked out, and it was just a burstblood vessel. I still have to fly back in 3 weeks for a final check. Thereally good news is the visit was only $80, and, because an ophthalmologistwas only available in Papeete, my insurance pays for transportation as wellas the professional fees. On our return at 6:30, Rose had preordered us happyhour drinks and we celebrated on the boat with a gourmet, Rose-preparedaffair of grilled lamb chops, choux fleurs au gratin, frites and pineappleupside down cake (one of the captain's favorites). I think she did it forwishful thinking, because, if itwas a detached retina, I would have had to stay in Tahiti for surgery.So, off we went to Raiatea this Wed., 9/5, an easy 20 mile motor (calm seas,no wind), got the aforementioned dinghy taken care of and met the guys atthe yard. Theyactually had to call in a few chips with the Moorings to get us areplacement dinghy as they rarely rent them and NEVER rent motors. Seemslike we picked a good yard so far. Today the guy met us on theboat----we're at the "city" waterfront FREE-yes, free, dock, and the guydrove over to meet us. Still exploring the main settlement here which ispretty good size, and Rose is now out on a quest to find another happy hourplace. We figure there's bound to be some as there are about 7 chartercompanies here and loads of Aussies and Americans. (Sunday pm-no luck onhappy hour. Guess we'll return to Huahine sooner than later)Big excitement last night (Thursday)!!!!! We went to bed on the early side,and I gotup about eleven for a while. I think the caffeine in my rum and cokeaffected my sleeping. About 11:30, I hear Rose screaming her lungs out.We;re talking Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, here!!!!Seems she saw some guy peering into our hatch. We both thought it wasprobably a dream, EXCEPT my hatch was open way farther than usual, and Roseswore there was someone there. There are a couple of possible shoe prints,but we can't be sure. Now we've just this minute found our "shoe crate"moved over by the lifeline gate with one of Joey's sandals missing, so itseems someone really was there.Anyway, I slept with the baseball bat, and we need to go check in with theGendarmes today, so we'll see what they have to say. The gendarme, asusual, friendly and courteous, didn't speak much English, but said this wasfairly common, but not dangerous. Theft is a bit of a problem, so we'vebeen locking the boat, including hatches at night. No repeats so far.Met an interesting younger couple backpacking their way around the world.The guy is a Scot and the girl, Irish, and they have around the worldtickets. He's in IT at Salomon in London. They're off to the Cook's andFiji today, then southeast Asia, and places like Katmandu. Too cold forthis crew!!!Well, it's Sunday, the 16th, and we still don't have our dinghy!!! Supposed to be here Tuesday and then we'll head off to Taha'a or Bora Bora. We need to be back here in Utoroa on the @4th to fly back to Tahiti for my eye and Joey's foot, then will start some serious exploration of Les Iles Sous le Vent (windward islands of the Societys which is where we are now).I'm going to sign off for now as this is getting a bit long, but big news last night. Joe went to the local disco last night and arrived back on the boat at about 7 with a rather large grin. Seems he's going for older chicks and has developed a meaningful relationship with a 30 year old Tahitian vahine who is her visiting her sister for a month. May be some heavy pressure to return here more often than the original plan.. : )Tim, Rose & Joe

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